The free world is the new continent in cyberspace that we have built so we can live here in freedom. It's impossible to live in freedom in the old world of cyberspace, where every program has its feudal lord that bullies and mistreats the users. So, to live in freedom we have to build a new continent. Because this is a virtual continent, it has room for everyone, and there are no immigration restrictions. - Richard Stallman -

Flowplayer is an Open Source (GPL 3) video player for the web. Use it to embed video streams into your web pages. Built for site owners, developers, hobbyists, businesses, and serious programmers.

Flowplayer is a flash video player, just like YouTube player. Except that the founders claim it's a dramatically better alternative and they have the number to back up the statement. They are currently receiving 14 000 visitors visiting their site a day and the player is downloaded 1 000 times a day. The founders aim is to make Flowplayer the #1 Flash video player in the world.

Why its better than the alternatives out there

Customization - Every single aspect of Flowplayer can be tweaked to meet your needs. This includes both the behaviour and the appearance.

Scripting - Flowplayer API is object-oriented and not just a flat list of functions. The event model is taken to the next level, allowing you to link custom functionality to every player event.

Plugins - Flowplayer can be extended with plugins. Some already-existing plugins allow you to, for example, place HTML content over the video when the playback ends, or implement custom playlists using only basic HTML skills.

Streaming servers - Flowplayer offers specialized streaming plugins for several different types of stream source. You can also build your own.

Multiple players on a page - You can have many player instances on a page without compromising the page's load speed or usability. A splash image loads in place of the video players before they are clicked to begin playback - but you can still supply a full configuration to each player in advance of it actually being loaded.

Free and Open Source

Flowplayer is an open source project. Believe it or not. You can download the player and the source code for free from our download page.

And yes: we have revenue. Our business model is quite simple. The free version of the player comes with a Flowplayer trademark. It's nothing that will distract your audience, but if you want to use your own logo, you need a commercial license. That's it -- the business model of Flowplayer.
Build your player in minutes.

Flowplayer makes a difference. Flowplayer Setup is our answer to expensive and complex video delivery systems. You can build your own customized player and put it on your site to stream your video from a global network.

A task that usually consumes copious amounts of time and money, or is simply impossible, can now be completed in minutes.

Today's design.

The Flowplayer skin reflects an emerging web design philosophy: the user interface should not get in your way. The video is the star of the show, while the player simply supports the viewing experience.

Modern design calls for transparency options. You often need transparency for the background, but not for the controlbar elements. This is why we implemented RGBA (Red, Green, Blue, Alpha) support for all individual controlbar elements.

Smooth as silk.

We have put a lot of effort into optimizing the player to perform smoothly when in playback mode or when the user interacts with the controls. The timeline animates fluidly, and we have two different autohiding modes: ”fade” and ”slide”.

Flowplayer 3.2 supports two different keyboard layouts: YouTube-compatible arrow keys, and VIM-compatible arrow keys (HJKL) for the hardcode nerds. Spacebar toggles between play and pause, just like before.

Stream from anywhere.

You can use the industry-standard streaming protocols RTMP or HTTP with most common web servers, including lighttpd, Apache, nginx or IIS; or stream your videos from well-known content delivery networks such as Akamai, Amazon Cloudfront, Highwinds, HDDN, and HDDN, among others.

Flowplayer is built with Flash technology which ensures that 98% of all Internet users can see your videos. We didn't stop there. We have an unique JavaScript API that changes the way you communicate with Flash.

Playlists, controlbars, volume sliders; you name it. With the aid of the object-oriented API, you can extend the player with standard web technologies HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Controlbar.

In Flowplayer, even the controlbar is a plugin which makes the player architecture modular. By default, the player uses a Flash-based controlbar with a "modern" skin. There are other skins such as "air" and "tube". All skins can be tweaked. Take a look at the Setup and see for yourself.
You can also use HTML and CSS to build a controlbar! Use our JavaScript controlbar plugin.

Playlists.

In Flowplayer, you can build your playlists with HTML and CSS. Big or small. Vertical or horizontal. Gradients, rounded borders, images, tables, forms; anything. CSS is flexible. Your imagination is your limit. Take a look at the Playlist plugin.

Of course, you can also configure an "invisible" playlist so that the player plays those clips one by one. Playlists are JavaScript arrays which are dynamic and flexible as opposed to old school XML-based configurations.

Controlbar.

In Flowplayer, even the controlbar is a plugin which makes the player architecture modular. By default, the player uses a Flash-based controlbar with a "modern" skin. There are other skins such as "air" and "tube". All skins can be tweaked. Take a look at the Setup and see for yourself.
You can also use HTML and CSS to build a controlbar! Use our JavaScript controlbar plugin.

Playlists.

In Flowplayer, you can build your playlists with HTML and CSS. Big or small. Vertical or horizontal. Gradients, rounded borders, images, tables, forms; anything. CSS is flexible. Your imagination is your limit. Take a look at the Playlist plugin.

Of course, you can also configure an "invisible" playlist so that the player plays those clips one by one. Playlists are JavaScript arrays which are dynamic and flexible as opposed to old school XML-based configurations.

Slow Motion.

Ever seen slow motion video on the web? The wait is over: Flowplayer now does it. This requires some clever co-operation with the server. The latest Wowza server is the first to support this, while Flowplayer makes it possible on the client side.
There are new controlbar buttons and keyboard shortcuts for both slow motion and fast forward.

Viral Videos.

The Viral Videos plugin allows you to spread your videos on the net like a friendly virus. Your videos can be embedded by other sites; and from there, they can be embedded by yet more sites.
You can also email the video or share it with the most popular social media services to take advantage of the exponential virus effect. The appearance and behaviour of this plugin are configurable.

Google Analytics.

Want to keep track of your video playback? The Analytics feature not only does this for your site, but for the virally-embedded players as well. We are using the brand new Google Event tracking, now officially out of beta.

The plugin can track all player events, such as start, pause, resume, finish or fullscreen, as well as the video location and duration of the playback.

Bandwidth detection.

Ideally you want the best available video experience with the least amount of network traffic. This is made possible by our intelligent bandwidth detection plugin. The bitrate adjusts dynamically based on the connection speed. Previously available for Adobe Flash Media server, the support has now been extended to Wowza.

The plugin will attempt to switch to a larger bandwidth when going to fullscreen mode, while taking care to not switch to a resolution too large to fit the screen. Stardandized loading of the bitrate information from an XML file is also supported.

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